by Nord, K. C.
"Bella, would you give us a moment alone?" He asked, ignoring my earlier question.
"Fine," she sniped and paused on her way out of the room. "He's my father," she whispered. "His name is Gordon, and he's a huge liar, so don't believe half of anything that he tells you."
Gordon gave a long-suffering sigh, "Bella, you know that I can hear everything that you just said."
Bella gave him a look of disdain, "and your point is?"
"Bella, enough!" he ordered. "Why don't you go help out in the kitchen. While I get to know my granddaughter a little."
"She seems to be a little upset with you," I remarked, studying his face for some familial resemblance after the other girl had left the room. He was tall and trim, with dark hair shot with silver. And although he looked to be in his early forties, I knew that he had to be at least twenty years older. But other than the height and the square shape of his jaw, I really couldn't see much resemblance to my dad.
He sighed again and sat down in the chair beside the bed, "Bella's situation is a little complicated. Her mother poisoned her mind against me, and she blames me for everything that happened to her."
"So, what is going on?" I asked. "If you just wanted to see Lucas and me, why didn't you just ask?"
"I have asked. But your father wants nothing to do with me."
"Kidnapping your grandchildren isn't likely to make your relationship any better," I replied skeptically.
He winced a little, I know that it looks bad, but that's not how it happened. Lucas was out of his head when we found him back in Louisiana and my main concern at the time was with getting him the help that he needed."
"We've been searching for him for months now with no word from you about whether he was dead or alive. And the fact that you had him with you the whole time and never even let us know doesn't exactly make you look like the grandfather of the year."
"You're right," he replied. "what can I do to fix things?"
"Well, the first thing that you could do is get me something to eat; I'm starving, "I complained." And the next thing I need to do is to contact my friends. Where exactly are we anyway?"
"Now that you're awake, I'll have something sent up from the kitchen. We're at my research facility in Barrenwood."
"Barrenwood," I echoed. "That's hours away from the farm in Texas. How long was I out?"
"It's been a couple of days since my men picked you up."
"What!" I gasped. "two days, that's crazy. I could have died! Why would you drug me like that?"
Gordon shook his head with a disgusted look, "that was never supposed to happen. The ones in charge have been severely reprimanded."
"But what about my friends?" I reminded him," they must be so worried about me by now."
"Oh, of course, I'll have Ethan contact them first thing in the morning and let them know that you're ok," he replied and reached out to gently pat me on the hand.
I tried to keep my expression neutral and let him believe that I was taking him at face value. Oh, he was saying all the right things with the correct degree of sincerity. But to me, it just looked as if he was going through the motions and telling me what I wanted to believe. I might be young, but I've always thought of myself as a good judge of character, and I didn't believe a damn word that came out of his mouth. And that wasn't just because of what his daughter said about him. The fact that my parents went to so much trouble to keep him out of our lives had to mean something.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
After a shower, some clean clothes, and a good meal, I actually felt human again, I thought as I stood in front of the bathroom mirror, brushing the tangles out of my wet hair. Unfortunately, after Gordon's ( I refused to call him Grandpa)oh so sincere talk about making amends, here I was still a prisoner and locked in this room.
I stalked across the room and kicked the bedside chair out of frustration, knocking it over against the wall. That's when I noticed the small camera mounted by the ceiling in the corner of the room. That jerk is watching me! I thought angrily as I picked up the bedside lamp and swung it at the camera before smashing it to bits under my feet.
Well, that was fun while it lasted, but what am I going to do now? I wondered as I paced impatiently around the room. Growing tired of walking around the room, I laid down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. I couldn't help speculating about what Nick and Norah might be doing? Had they gone to meet my parents? Or were they out there somewhere searching for me? Hopefully, Nick didn't think that I had just run off on my own to avoid going back with Lucas. Of course, the fact that I'd done it before didn't say much for my track record.
And then there was Lucas, why hadn't he came to see me? Was he also being held prisoner? There were just so many unknowns. I would have trusted Lucas with my life in the past, but now I just didn't know. Siblings can be close, but a twin is your other half, and I felt a little ashamed of myself for suspecting him of being anything but loyal. But I also knew that I had to be logical; Lucas had been through a lot in the last year, and who knew if he was even in his right mind or not.
What was that? I thought and sat up as the sound of gunfire and explosions reached my ears. A moment later, the lights flickered, and my door swung silently open. I ran out the door and was almost knocked down by a middle-aged man in a white coat who was running down the hallway.
"Wait, what's going on?" I asked and grabbed him by the arm.
"Let go!" he yelled in panic and shoved me back against the wall before running down the hall.
I wondered for a second if I should follow him? It was evident that something pretty bad was happening. But me being me, I just had to see what was going on.
I had just reached the double doors at the end of the corridor when two more men in white coats burst through the doors and ran past me.
The sound of gunfire was getting louder, so I was obviously on the right track; I thought and stopped when some movement to my left caught my attention. I paused and stared in horror through the large glass observation window of the room next to me as three zombies had a doctor down on the floor as they savagely tore him apart. Blood splashed against the window as he screamed in terrified agony as they started to eat him alive.
I froze in shock feeling dizzy and light-headed as my stomach heaved at the horrific sight. I looked around helplessly for a weapon, something, anything to help him. But there was nothing that I could do but hope that the end was quick for him. Just then, I noticed a security guard come around the corner and waved him over.
"It's too late; there's nothing that we can do for him," he stated regretfully.
"But we can't just let him suffer like that!" I protested.
He shook his head, "we're under attack, and several of the test subjects have managed to get free; the best thing that you can do is to get out of here before you end up like him."
"You can't just leave him there," I called as he started jogging down the hall.
"I'm sorry," he called as he ran through the double doors at the end of the corridor.
I turned around with a start and realized that I had attracted one of the zombies' attention through the observation window. It was scrabbling on the window and smearing the blood splatters all over the glass. It looked almost like a child fingerprinting on the glass, which was in itself creepy enough, but the most bizarre thing about it was the look on its face. I stared at it in fascination as it stared right back at me with a strange half-smile that was seemingly frozen on its pallid face. I know that it wasn't doing it deliberately because zombies simply lack the brain function to do anything except for the simplest of tasks, but it still freaked me out!
I shivered and stepped back from the window before following an arrow on the wall that listed security. The sooner I found some weapons, the better, and I had a feeling that this would be the best place to look.
Once inside the security offices, I went to the storage room, which was more of an armory; there, I picked out a handgun and holster along with an assa
ult rifle and a large hunting knife to replace the one that I'd lost somewhere along the way. Next, I grabbed a military ammo pouch and as much ammo as I could carry before heading out the door.
Except for the security guard, I hadn't seen anyone else for several minutes, but the sound of gunfire was getting louder as I started jogging down the hall past numerous closed doors. I wondered if Lucas was locked up somewhere as I'd been, but there were just too many doors to try them all. No, the best thing to do was to find out what was going on. I could figure out the rest later.
I jogged past another large room with an observation window; this room had several zombies inside. All of whom were securely down to hospital beds. The next chamber was occupied by a single male zombie that was mindlessly crashing into the glass observation window over and over again. This was pretty strange behavior for a zombie as they were usually dormant except in the presence of prey. And I had to wonder just what kinds of experiments Gordon was doing on the zombies and just what exactly did he hope to accomplish. Everything that I'd seen here so far just reinforced the fact that my parents had good reasons to keep my grandfather out of our lives.
I grimaced as the zombie crashed into the window yet again. At this point, his face was a gory, bloody mess with blood and pus, along with some brain matter starting to drip down his face. But he didn't seem to notice anything, not even me, as I stood there watching him. I thought if given enough time, he might manage to kill himself.
I backed away and jumped in surprise when I heard a banging noise behind me. Turning, I was startled to see Nick there banging on the glass door behind me.
"I'm locked inside. the emergency door controls are over by that security desk," He said, nodding at the desk in a waiting area to my right. "Just make sure you get the right one and don't let any of the zombies out."
I started for the desk when the lights flickered again, and all of the locked doors slid open.
"Oops, I spoke too soon," he commented and grabbed me by the arm, pulling me towards a door behind the desk. "Let's get out of here before they all notice the open doors."
I was halfway through the door when I looked back and stopped as I locked eyes with a zombie standing in the middle of the hall. I don't know where he'd come from, but he was huge!
"He's a monster," I whispered, staring in shock at the behemoth.
The thing had to be at least 6ft8 and probably weighed at least three hundred pounds. He also looked incredibly powerful with muscles on top of muscles, not at all soft and squishy like the typical zombie.
"What kind of crazy shit has your grandfather been up to?" Nick said.
"I don't know," I breathed, unable to take my eyes off it. "But this is not good!"
"Oh hell," Nick swore when the zombie took a step towards us. Moving quickly, he snaked one arm around my waist and pulled me off my feet and through the door backward.
Once inside the door, we realized that we were now in a stairwell with a decision to make.
"Up the stairs," Nick decided and gave me a push toward them. "Zombies can't climb stairs."
I ran up several stairs and looked down in horror to see that this zombie could climb the stairs. He was moving pretty slowly and was taking it one step at a time, but it was evident that he was learning to climb stairs.
"What the hell!" Nick exclaimed when he noticed that it was climbing the stairs.
I shrugged, "at least it's slow."
"He's getting faster all the time," Nick remarked as the zombie picked up speed.
"Why don't we just shoot it?"
"I'd rather not draw any more attention than is necessary," Nick replied as he hurried me up the stairs.
"Well, let's see if we can slow him down," I said, spying a fire extinguisher on the wall as we reached the next landing.
I opened it up spraying the stairwell as well as the zombie with the foaming suds and had to laugh as he started slipping and sliding as he started slipping and sliding on the slippery floor. The huge zombie fell to his knees and slid to the edges of the landing before falling down several steps as he tried to regain his feet. I threw the now empty extinguisher after him, and it comically bounced off his head. But it also had the unfortunate effect of drawing his attention back to us.
"Oh, I probably shouldn't have done that!" I whispered.
Nick sighed as he headed for the door, "It's too late now!" let's get out of here before he catches up to us."
I slipped out the door behind him and started down yet another endless hallway, "how did you f-" My words were cut off when Nick clapped one hand over my mouth and pushed me through a doorway. He shook his head in warning as I started to speak again, and seconds later, the sound of voices reached my ears.
Looking around, I realized that we were in a meeting room, and with our luck, that was probably right where they were headed. I started looking around for a way out when we heard shouts and gunfire coming from the hallway.
"It sounds like the zombie got out of the stairwell," I remarked, surprising a laugh out of Nick.
"Hopefully, he will keep them busy for a while," Nick remarked as we crossed the room and opened the balcony doors.
I was hoping for a fire escape, but once on the balcony, it was apparent that the only way out was for us to jump down to the balcony on the floor below.
"I'll go first and catch you," Nick said as he slipped off the edge of the balcony hanging there for a minute before dropping easily to the floor below."
I climbed onto the railing as the door to the conference room burst open. Looking back, I saw several armed men run into the room. None of them had as of yet noticed me there because all of their attention was on the door. And for a good reason, as the giant zombie was right behind them. They opened fire, and I could hear someone; it sounded like Gordon shouting at them not to kill him. But from the looks of things, they were in a lot more danger than the zombie.
"Kaley, snap out of it and hurry up," Nick yelled as I sat there dubiously on the top rail trying to decide if my fear of getting eaten by a monster zombie was worse than my fear of heights.
"All right, keep your panties on!" I snapped.
"We don't have time for this!" he stated.
"Time to suck it up, Kaley," I whispered; I don't know why but at times like this, talking to myself always seems to help. With that, I climbed over the railing before dangling there by my hands, trying not to look at the ground so far below. I swung once, twice, three times until I was over the floor below.
"Ok, let go," Nick called.
And I did, dropping smoothly into his arms with a silent prayer and an audible sigh of relief.
"There, that wasn't so bad. Was it?" Nick asked.
"No, not at all," I agreed calmly, ignoring the fact that I was clutching his shoulders so hard my knuckles were white, and my stomach felt queasy. Of all the things to inherit from my grandma, I had to inherit her fear of heights. I would have much rather gotten her beautiful light blonde hair, but no, I had to get this instead!
"Oh, and Kaley, I don't wear panties," Nick said with an amused glint in his eyes.
I blinked at him in surprise. Did the ever-so-serious Nick Monroe have a sense of humor? That thought was interrupted by a shout from above, and I moved back from the edges of the balcony as a body hurtled past towards the ground.
CHAPTER THIRTY
I pushed open the sliding glass door and stepped inside. Several loud thumps along with some yells and cursing sounded from the floor above. Hopefully, that monster zombie would be able to keep them occupied long enough for us to escape.
Let's get out of here," I said, heading for the door.
The outside corridor was silent and empty as we ran past a large cafeteria and a waiting room before reaching the stairwell. I reached out to open the door when the elevator door across the hall slid open to reveal Gordon St. James along with Ethan and a couple of armed guards.
Before we had time to react, the stairwell door opened, and several more armed guard
s spilled out and swiftly disarmed us at gunpoint.
"Is this how you make amends? By pointing guns at your own granddaughter and holding me prisoner?" I spat bitterly.
Gordon sighed, "I'm sorry, Kaley, but you've given me no choice."
"No choice!" I yelled. "Who the hell do you think you are!"
Gordon shook his head, "you are way too undisciplined and a little too much like your mother, I'm afraid." He turned to his second in command, "Ethan, see to it that she receives a tranquilizer to calm her down a little. Then maybe she'll be more inclined to listen to reason."
"Yes, Sir!" Ethan replied and approached me with a syringe in his hand.
When he got just close enough, I lashed out with my right foot kicking it out of his hand before one of the guards managed to lock my hands behind my back and cuff me. Beside me, I was aware of Nick struggling violently with the remaining guards, but all of my attention was on my grandfather, who approached until he was standing right in front of me, but just out of my reach.
"Get your hands off her!" Nick shouted, still struggling with the guards who had now forced him to his knees.
"Shoot the boyfriend," Gordon ordered, looking at us dispassionately.
"No," I gasped, feeling all the strength leave my legs. "Please, I'll do whatever you want; just let him go."
"You'll stop trying to escape and do as you're told?"
"Yes, anything! None of this is his fault; it was all me!"
"Ok," Gordon nodded. "We have a deal."
"Promise me that you'll let Nick go!"
"You have my word," Gordon replied.
"No, Kaley, you can't make a deal with someone like him," Nick said urgently.
I looked over at him, "It's better this way, Nick. I am just so sorry you got dragged into all of this!"
Gordon nodded to Ethan, "take her back to her room while I mop up this mess."
"Time to go, Princess," Ethan said with mock politeness before grabbing me by the arm and